Tom
strode to the helm station. Harry worked his console. Kes stood in
front of the main status board. Chakotay took his seat beside
Janeway's command chair. "Did you say 'visible' chroniton
particles?"

"Yes,
Captain. How that is possible, I do not understand at the moment."

Harry
spoke. "I thought chronitons only originated in the Alpha Quadrant
as a by-product of Romulan cloaking devices."

Suddenly,
Chakotay stiffened in his chair. "Captain. I have a theory about
how this could have happened."

Janeway
looked at him and said, "What is it?"

He
turned to her and said, "Seska."

Janeway
sobered. "Stealing Romulan cloak specs and selling them to an alien
race? That's a good theory, but she died last year."

"The
Kazon couldn't have gotten ahead of us in that time, either, but
she could have sent them by subspace," he said.

"Payment
couln't have been transmitted back, unless they sent blueprints for
something else. I think this warrants an investigation." She turned
to the helm console. "Tom, take us to within 10,000 kilometers for
a safety pass. We're going in." She turned around. "Kes, can
you analyze the amount of temporal radiation and find a way to
counteract it?"

"Yes,
Captain." She walked around the bridge railing to Tom's console
and looked at his sensor readout.

Chakotay
stood. "I'll go down to Deflector Control and find a way to cut
through the chronitons." He tapped his commbadge as he walked.
"Chakotay to Neelix. Report to Deflector Control. Time for a lesson
in deflector tweaking."

"Aye,
Commander,"
came the excited reply.

Janeway
watched him go, then said, "Bridge to Engineering."

"Torres
here."

"B'Elanna,
have you been monitoring our situation?"

"Yes,
Captain. We've been reprogramming the Bussard collectors to screen
out the chronitons. We're also radiation-proofing everything down
here."

"Good
work."

Kes
turned to Janeway, and her long blond hair whipped around. She said,
"Full shields should protect us, Captain, although I would like to
consult with the Doctor for a second opinion."

Janeway
smiled. "You're always the one consulted for a second opinion.
I'm not sure the doctor's going to like being consulted after you."

"I
know just what to say. I'll go activate him." She walked to the
turbolift.

"Just
another moment. We're still trying to figure out how the chronitons
are visible. It might be detrimental to our journey inside. We'll
have it figured out by the end of the safety pass."

"I've
always admired your thoroughness, B'Elanna."

"We're
theorizing that there must be subspace fractures between Voyager
and the star at the center of the nebula that are refracting the
light as a result of the quantum singularity used to generate the
chronitons."

"I've
scanned similar fractures. Full shields should prevent us from
feeling any effects."

"Yes,
Captain, but the commander bumped his head in the process. He should
be joining you momentarily."

Janeway
smiled. "Bridge to sick bay."

"Doctor
here, Captain."
The hologram sounded slightly annoyed. "Upon
further analysis, now that I've been consulted, you might experience
some vertigo upon entering the nebula. I'm piping an antidote
through the ventilation system."

"Thank
you, Doctor." Janeway turned to her left. "Mr. Kim?"

"Ops
is ready." Harry said.

"Mr.
Tuvok?"

"Ready,
Captain." The Vulcan at Tactical said.

"Then
raise shields. Mr. Paris, take us in at three-quarter impulse."

"Yes,
ma'am!" Tom pressed a contact on his control board, and Voyager
entered the nebula.

"Readings?"

Harry
said, "Chroniton levels are at 5,000 millirads per second and
climbing. Shields compensating."

Harry
Kim had a confused look on his face as he pressed buttons. "It's
not coming from a planet... It's coming from the asteroid belt."

"Habitats?"

"No,
Captain. I'm not reading any atmosphere." Then realization dawned
on him. "Captain! This used to be a six planet system!"

Janeway
stood up as the turbolift opened. "It exploded?"

Chakotay
walked around the railing to the lower bridge and sat in his chair.
"Perhaps they really were experimenting with cloaking technology."

"Which
obviously went horribly wrong." Tom interjected. "The singularity
they created must have been too intense for them to handle."

Tuvok's
console beeped insistently. "Captain, a wave of chroniton particles
is approaching fast. It is being propelled by particle waves from the
pulsar's rotation."

Janeway
retreated, intending to sit in her chair. "Tom, match direction
and velocity–"

Suddenly,
the lights flickered off, and the ever-present hum of the engines
stopped. Everybody on the ship felt weightless. Janeway's stance
propelled her above her command chair. Then, just as suddenly,
everything came back online. As the artificial gravity reactivated,
Janeway's head came down on the railing with a sickening crack.
Paris stumbled as he ran to her.

Harry
looked like he had been kicked, and spoke with a hoarse voice as he
tapped his commbadge. "Bridge to sickbay. Medical emergency."

"I've
got requests coming in from all over the ship, Harry,"
Kes replied with an equally hoarse voice. "The
Doctor's off-line. Who needs help?"

"The
captain hit her head. Tom's looking at her now. Tuvok's
unconscious, and Chakotay appears to be delirious."

"I've
got you, Tom." Harry said as he manipulated his console. When Tom
and the captain disappeared, Harry walked to the center of the
bridge. Chakotay was on the deck in a fetal position, and muttering
to himself. Tuvok was unconscious, and the security officer on the
aft station had risen to one knee, bracing himself against the
railing. Harry felt the same way. "Ensign Strickler, see to
Commander Tuvok, then take the helm." He nodded slowly.

Harry
ran a tricorder over Chakotay and saw that there were no
life-threatening abnormalities. He glanced at the captain's chair,
looked around briefly, then sat in it with resolve. He pressed a
button on the console between the chairs and said, "Ship's log,
stardate 50901.8. Ensign Harry Kim recording. At this moment I have
assumed command. . ."

*
* *

In
sickbay, Kes was helping Paris put the captain on a diagnostic bed.
As it activated, Kes said, "Computer, run a level 2 scan for brain
injury." Kes then let out a muffled yelp and doubled over in pain.

Tom
caught her and asked, "Kes! Are you all right?" He put her on
one of the beds, then went for a medical tricorder. People were
entering as Tom ran the scanner over Kes' as she continued groaning
in pain. "Your vitals are in a state of flux! Whatever that was,
it hit us hard!" He grabbed a hypospray, slapped in a vial and
injected her. "That should stabilize you."

He
walked over to the captain's bed, where the computer was beeping
insistently. He pressed a button, and the computer spoke. "Massive
trauma and internal injuries."

"Yeah,
tell me something I don't know."

"Activity
in the pineal gland beyond chart capacity."

Tom's
eyebrows shot up. "I wasn't serious."

"Please
restate."

"Oh,
shut up already." Running the tricorder over several people in the
room, he came up with the same results. He took a deep breath and
steeled himself for the answer as he passed the scanner over himself.
He looked at the readout and cursed. Just then, the doors parted to
admit Neelix, who was helping a female crew member. She collapsed to
the floor as Neelix asked, "Tom, what's happening? Everyone's
dropping like dust!"

Tom ran
the scanner over Neelix. "You're unaffected! How is that
possible?"

"Please,
stop shouting," Kes said as she rolled off the bed. She stumbled
toward Neelix and steadied herself on his arm. She took the
tricorder from Tom and tabbed back to the scan he took of her. Her
eyes grew wide. She ran another scan on herself, then shrieked. She
dropped the tricorder, sank to her knees and yelled, "No! It can't
be! It's too soon!"

Neelix
stammered. "What's wrong?"

"Mor.
. . Morilogium!"

Neelix'
bottom lip quivered. "But... but you're only 3!"

"It's
happening! I'll be dead in 2 days!"

Paris
remembered what happened to her as she laid in the temporal chamber.
She had experienced life backwards, starting with her Morilogium, the
final phase of the Ocampan lifespan. Suddenly, it struck him.

"Kes?
Does this have anything to do with the pineal gland?"

"From
what I can remember, the pineal gland governs the body's natural
aging."

"That
must be the reason behind the lousy feeling we're experiencing." He
struck his commbadge. "Paris to bridge! Harry!"

"Tom?"
he answered.

"What's
our position?"

"We're
getting out of the nebula as fast as we can, but she's sluggish.
I'll let you know when we reach the perimeter."

"Paris
to Engineering."

"Vorik
here, sir."

"Where's
B'Elanna? Never mind. We need more impulse power."

"I
am working on it. Ensign Kim has already asked. Are we aware of
what occurred, Lieutenant?"

Kes
spoke up. "Ensign Vorik, I believe I know what happened. The
chroniton radiation stimulated a gland in our brains that governs
aging. According to my calculations, we have all aged 5 years."

"Then
somebody must attend to Commander Tuvok–-"

"--he
might be undergoing pon
farr."
Kes finished.

Paris
spoke up. "Last I saw, he was unconscious."

Vorik
sighed quickly. "He
has the potential for violence. It is fortunate that I experienced
it three months ago. I do not wish to go through it again in such a
short time."

Just
then, a primal roar was uttered, followed by the intercom being cut
off.

Paris
and Neelix looked at each other and yelled. "B'Elanna!" They
sprinted out of sick bay.

Kes'
sad eyes widened. "Wait. . . The Morilogium chant. . ."

Neelix
came back. "In a minute. Call the bridge and have Mr. Kim start
the phaser suppression protocol."

"I
was going to have Tom do it. . ." Kes said, but Neelix was gone.
She tapped her commbadge. "Sick bay to bridge."

"I've
got his phaser, but you know Tuvok can override the protocol. What's
going on?"

"I'll
explain in a minute. Just initiate the protocol and see if you can
lock Tuvok out."

"OK,
but you'd better explain why."
Harry said uneasily.

* *
*

Neelix
and Paris ran into engineering. They stopped for a second as they
saw Vorik struggling valiantly with B'Elanna. He was trying to use
the Vulcan nerve pinch, but she had his wrists in her hands. They
ran toward her. She pushed Vorik back with her foot, and he hit the
bulkhead hard. As he slumped to the deck, B'Elanna got into a
fighting crouch. Tom stopped in front of her, and Neelix ran for the
weapons locker. "B'Elanna. Listen to me. Our brains have been
stimulated by the chroniton radiation. Calm down!"

"My
brain's been stimulated, all right! And nobody tells me to calm
down!" She lashed out at Tom, who managed to block.

Neelix
plucked a phaser from the locker, but B'Elanna grabbed Tom by the
arms and threw him at Neelix. As the two collided, the phaser landed
at B'Elanna's feet. She picked it up and aimed it at Tom's head.
Tom knew that at this distance a stun setting could kill him. She
pressed the trigger, but nothing happened. She looked at the phaser
in surprise, then raised it above her head to hit him, uttering a
bloodcurdling shout. Tom winced, bracing himself for the inevitable
pain, when a hand suddenly appeared on her shoulder. She collapsed
to the deck, revealing Vorik behind her. Tom said, "Thank heaven
for Vulcans and weapons suppression."

"The
neural gel packs are offline. We need to bypass into manual
control."

"The
gel packs?" Neelix asked. "The radiation affected them as well?"

"It
is possible."

"I
have an idea. Are the sensors still online?" Paris asked.

"They
are, but only at 32.4% operating capacity."

Paris
hit his commbadge. "Harry, see if you can scan the chronitons for
neural frequencies. Contact Kes for the specific frequency of the
neurotransmitters produced by the humanoid pineal gland."

"Will
do. Tom, Tuvok is awake and delirious. I've beamed him and Chakotay
to sickbay."

"Understood.
We're working on the impulse relays. We'll have them up in 10
minutes."

"Acknowledged.
Kim out."

*
* *

"T'Pel.
. ." Tuvok muttered as Kes examined him. He was in the meditation
pose, but his eyes were wide, and he was trembling slightly.

Kes
assumed from that one word that he was indeed undergoing the pon
farr,
the Vulcan mating fever. Her tricorder beeped an alarm, confirming
that thought, but something else as well. "A neurological
disorder? If this gets any worse. . ." She cut the rest of that
thought off and turned to examine Chakotay. The tricorder beeped
again, alerting her to a similar ailment. "A genetic cognitive
disorder." She sighed. "If the Doctor were here, he'd have a
field day."

"Grandfather.
. . I. . . I understand. . ." Chakotay said.

Kes
remembered from her psychological studies that people often call out
to loved ones when they were very sick. She could only imagine what
most of the crew were saying now.

The
intercom tone sounded. "Kes,
the sensors aren't picking up much. When they're back at full
capacity, they'll need to be calibrated to the neural frequency."

"I
understand, Harry. Thanks. Sickbay out." She pressed her
commbadge. "Tom, I could use your help as soon as possible."

"Kes,
the impulse engines are almost online. After that, we need to work
on sensors–-"

"We
need to get the crew back on their feet, Tom. They can work on the
ship while we work to reverse what the radiation did to us, or get
the Doctor working again. I also need to ask a favor of you."

Down in
Engineeering, Tom stopped working to give her his full attention.
"What is it, Kes?"

"Please,
Tom,"
Kes said, "it's
a private matter."

Neelix
looked at Tom as he said, "I'll be right there. Paris out."

Neelix
said, "Tom, she needs you to perform the Morilogium chant."

"What,
the Ocampa version of last rites?"

"She's
dying, and she needs the chant to be performed so she can be ensured
a place in the afterlife."

"I
thought only family members or clergy could do that sort of thing."

"You're
all she has, Tom. The Doctor's offline, the captain's in a coma and
Tuvok's in no position to perform it."

"What
about you?"

Neelix
dipped his head so sharply, his facial hairs quivered. "I'm no
longer a member of her family." He patted Tom on the shoulder. "Go.
We'll start on the sensors."

Looking
confused, Tom gave Neelix his handful of isolinear chips and headed
out of Engineering.

*
* *

Kes
looked up from a patient on the floor as Tom entered sickbay. "Tom,
thank you for coming. I've got the computer working on a vaccine
which should stabilize everybody." She handed him a padd. "These
are the parameters of an Ocampan chant which is part of our death
ritual."

Tom
tabbed through the various pages. "It will take me a while to
perform it, but I'll do it. How are you feeling?"

Kes
closed her eyes, fighting off a wave of pain.

"Kes?"
Tom held her while glancing around for a hypospray.

"I'm
all right." She looked up, placing a hand on his shoulder. "The
stress combined with the Morilogium isn't doing me any good." She
led him to the Doctor's laboratory where she showed him the results
of her research. "The pineal gland also governs the conscience
function."

"That
explains why B'Elanna went berserk. Vorik neck-pinched her in a way
that will keep her out for hours. I hope Tuvok will be all right."

"He's
in pain, but he seemed fine. It looks like he's been meditating
since he arrived."

"I
think we should restrain him all the same." He walked through the
doctor's office to where everybody lay. He glanced around.

Kes
followed him in and gasped. "He's gone!"

"Didn't
you restrain him?"

"I
must have forgotten in all the confusion."

Paris
tapped his commbadge. "Computer, locate Tuvok."

"Working.
. ." The computer beeped a few times. Paris was starting to become
impatient when it said, "Lieutenant Tuvok is in the quarters of
Lieutenant Torres."

*
* *

Tuvok
looked up as Kes and Paris exited the room. He got up and stumbled
his way through the corridors of the ship. He was sweating
profusely, and he suffered muscle spasms. He groped along the
bulkheads because his vision deceived him with hallucinations. He
muttered to them. He stopped at the door of B'Elanna's quarters and
choked out the words, "Emergency ingress. Tuvok Rho Alpha." The
door snapped open.

He
lurched inside and looked around. He went to the clothing drawers,
opened them up, and rifled through them. He found her hand phaser
and holstered it, but that was not what he was looking for. He got
to the bottom drawer and saw it. He pulled out a Klingon bat'leth,
scattering clothing. He caressed the blades, finding them
satisfactory for his task. In the same drawer he found a file used
for sharpening the blades. He took that as well.

Tuvok
closed his eyes, searching his mind for the familiar telepathic
presence of his wife. He could not find it, which meant she was far
away. "The Maquis. They must be responsible," he murmured.
"They must pay, and they will pay dearly." He removed his
commbadge, tossed it on the bed and staggered out.

*
* *

"That's
it. . . Almost there. . . Got it!" Harry said to Vorik over the
intercom as they manually calibrated the navigational sensors. "I
have a rotation projection for the chroniton wave. It will be here
in. . . seven hours, 33 minutes. Estimated time of leaving the
nebula. . . Damn! 11 hours, 53 minutes!"

"We're
going to need a third option."
Vorik replied.

Tom's
voice came over the intercom. "Security
to deck five, Section 12-Alpha!"

"Kim
to Paris. What's wrong, Tom?"

"Tuvok
is gone, and the computer says he's in B'Elanna's quarters! I hope he
doesn't find what's in her fourth drawer!"

"This
is Ensign Vorik. Tuvok is deep in the
plak tow.
He is probably very paranoid and might be searching for his wife.
Lieutenant Paris, I assume you have Lt. Torres under restraint?"

"Affirmative,
Vorik. I put her in the restraining field myself."

"Ensign
Kim, this is Kes. I have an idea as to why Neelix in unaffected. If
I remember correctly, he was position behind the deflector dish, in
the deflector control room. That could have offered him protection.
Also, the bio-neural gel packs have a minor pineal gland function."

"Nice
piece of detective work, Kes." Kim said. "How do we get out of
this situation?"

"I'd
say the Doctor would be hard-pressed to come up with a solution in
the time allotted. The only answer I can give is that we need an
infusion of anti-chronitons at the same rate and intensity."

Tuvok
sat alone in a Jeffries tube junction, sharpening the bat'leth and
muttering to himself.

"T'Pel.
. . They have taken T'Pel. . . I cannot find her anywhere. . .
They know I will die without her. . ." He started sharpening more
forcefully with the file. ". . . and she without me. . . The
Maquis will pay. . . oh yes, they will PAY!" He hurled the file
down the Jeffries tube to his right. Adjusting his tricorder that he
specially calibrated to mask his lifesigns, he moved down the tube to
his left.

*
* *

"Internal
sensors are only at 25%."
Baytart said.

"Vorik's
working on them now. In the meantime, keep your team on high alert.
Commander Tuvok knows how to use Klingon weaponry."
Harry said.

Tom
Paris overheard all of this while preparing for a battle with Tuvok,
should one arise. Phasers were locked out, and hand-to-hand combat
with a stronger-than-human Vulcan would be difficult at best,
especially one armed with a bat'leth.

Kes
walked out of the laboratory. "I think I have it. I've mixed
sodium Pentothal with curare and tricordrazine." They walked over
to B'Elanna, who stared at them defiantly. "I'll start out at 15
cc's, then five cc's after that until she manages to give us the
information we need. You'll have to question her."

Tom
bent to look at B'Elanna. "I'm sorry. I truly am." She snarled.
Tom turned back to Kes. "Go ahead."

Kes
injected her. Paris said, "Name. Rank."

B'Elanna
responded slowly. "Go. . . spit. . ."

Kes
reprogrammed the hypospray and injected her again. "Name and
rank."

"Somewhere
in . . . the early 3000s. Look for a being named . . . Lazarus."

Kes
walked over to a computer station and searched for the name and logs.
"Yes. That's it. Stardate 3087.6. The Enterprise
encountered a being named Lazarus who supposedly came from a parallel
universe composed entirely of antimatter."

Paris
thought for a moment. "Our universe is composed of regular matter.
If this alternate universe is made of antimatter, then their physics
will be the polar opposite of ours." He walked over to the computer
station and read the report. "Computer, access the science logs
taken by the Enterprise
during this 'period of nonexistence'."

The
computer beeped. "Access denied. Security level three or above is
required to access logs."

"Access
enabled." The information scrolled past. After a moment of
reading, Paris and Kes smiled.

*
* *

"So,
having studied Commander Spock's report, we should be able to open a
rift in to this flip-side universe with the little tweaking to our
deflector dish." Paris said, sitting in his helm chair. "In that
universe, the physics are the exact opposite of ours. There should
be a parallel Voyager
in the exact same situation as we are, but their nebula is composed
of anti-chronitons. A Mobius rift will do the job, and it will
create a buffer zone as well, so none of their universe leaks into
ours." Paris said.

"We
have some problems, though. The deflector room won't be able to
protect Neelix."

Kes
spoke up. "The stasis field in sickbay should be able to screen
out the radiation."

"Also,
the logs showed that the opposite of this Lazarus being was
adversarial. Be careful when encountering the duplicate Voyager."
Paris turned around to his console and began entering commands. "I'm
returning the ship to the point where we encountered the wave. Vorik
and what's left of the engineering staff should be ready to create
the dimensional rift by then."

Kes
walked over to Tom. "Just in case we don't make it, I'll still
need you to perform the Morilogium chant."

"I
understand," he replied, "There's nothing we can really do for
the crew until we get into the other universe." He got up and
walked with her to the turbolift.

*
* *

Voyager
moved into position facing the pulsar 10 minutes before the wave was
scheduled to hit. Harry Kim was in the command chair, grim
determination on his face. Samantha Wildman sat at the engineering
console looking worried. Three other crewmen were manning tactical,
ops and helm. Neelix volunteered hesitantly for the stasis field,
and Kes was laying on one of the bio-beds while Tom fumbled his way
through the chant, phonetically spelled on a padd.

Vorik
contacted the bridge. "We
are ready to initiate the pulse, Ensign Kim."

Wildman
said, "Deflector ready."

Jurot
said, "Tactical ready."

"Ops
ready." Culhane added.

"Helm
ready." Strickler reported.

"Entering
domain frequency for the creation of the Mobius rift." Harry said
as he tapped buttons on the command console. He heard the turbolift
doors part. Suddenly, Ensign Wildman was being manhandled out of her
chair by Tuvok. He stood behind her, holding a bat'leth blade at her
throat. She clutched at his arm, trying to tear it away and scramble
to safety, but was unable to counter his strength.

"TELL
ME!" Tuvok moved the blade closer to Samantha's throat. She
whimpered.

Harry's
mind raced for a solution. He found one. He moved to the port side
of the bridge with his back to the ops console. He stood at ease
with his hands behind his back, and said in his Starfleet decorum
voice, "Lieutenant Commander Tuvok, sir! I have an official report
to make about your wife, sir!" Behind his back, he cocked his hand
as if he were holding a phaser, and moved his thumb up and down as if
here were pressing the trigger. He then mimed tapping buttons on a
console. Culhane saw it, and understood.

"Where
is she?" Tuvok growled.

Harry
raised his hands, twiddled his index and middle fingers to quote,
then said "Buster Kincaid to the rescue!"

"What
is this drivel?" Tuvok said in a hoarse voice.

"Your
wife is not on board this vessel," Harry gambled. "Therefore you
will have to fight to overcome yourpon
farr.
I volunteer to fight you." He raised his hands in a fighting
stance.

Tuvok
roared, throwing Wildman aside and dropping the bat'leth. He
converged on Harry, who made attempts to block the punches. Samantha
scrambled back to her station. Jurot raised his phaser and fired.
Tuvok crumpled to the ground. Harry got up and wiped the blood from
his mouth, saying, "What took you so long?"

"You
used punctuation in your lockout password." Culhane replied.

Harry
sat down the command chair. "I did, didn't I?" He looked at
Wildman. "Are you all right?"

"I'm
fine," she said, rubbing her throat.

"Good.
How long until the wave?"

"Three
minutes."

"Engage
pulse."

Jurot
walked over and knelt over Tuvok's unconscious form. "Beam us to
sickbay," he told Culhane.

"Tell
Tom to keep him under restraint this time." Harry said.

"Yes,
sir," and Culhane beamed him out.

The
deflector dish activated and a white pulse carved a Mobius rift
through a subspace domain to a parallel universe. Harry looked at
the viewscreen, where it looked like the rippling surface of a lake
of lava faced them.

"Rift
complete." Wildman said as the beam ceased.

"Take
us in, Mr. Strickler." Harry ordered.

Voyager
entered the rift into a void where there were no stars, only a mist.
Culhane said, "We appear to be the buffer zone between the
universes." His console beeped a warning. "I'm picking up another
vessel on sensors. It's another Voyager,
coming from the opposite end of the buffer."

"Maneuver
around them and continue to the other end."

The
identical Voyagers
moved past each other without communicating. They both entered the
rifts on the opposite sides of the zone.

Harry
looked at the screen. It looked just like the area of space they left
before entering the rift. He hoped this was the right universe.

"The
wave is approaching. Impact in 30 seconds." Wildman announced.

In
Sickbay, Tom Paris sped up his reading of the Ocampan chant so he
could finish before the wave hit. Ensign Wildman was broadcasting a
countdown.

"20.
. ."

"19.
. ."

"18.
. ."

Apprehension
welled up in the hearts of everybody on board who was conscious.

"10.
. ."

"9. .
."

Tom
finished his chant. Kes started hers.

"4. .
. "

"3. .
."

Kes
finished her chant. Tom added "Amen."

"1. .
. Impact."

The
crew closed their eyes as the wave hit Voyager. The ship shuddered.

Harry
instantly felt worse. Again he wondered if he entered the wrong
frequency, and was getting something other than anti-chronitons.

The
Doctor appeared. "Please state the nature of the medical
emergency."

Tom
smiled, then turned grim. "The captain's in a coma. Trauma to the
head."

The
Doctor picked up a tricorder and scanned her, then looked over his
shoulder to Kes helping Neelix out of a stasis box. "What
happened?" he asked.

"Long
story, Doc." Tom smiled weakly.

"Take
us back in," Harry ordered.

Voyager
turned around and headed back into the rift. Once inside, The
tactical console sounded an alarm. Culhane ran for it. "The other
Voyager
is locking phasers on us!"

"Shields
up! Red alert!"

As the
siren sounded, Culhane spoke. "They're our equal in every way."

Harry
thought about the two opposite beings named Lazarus from Tom's
report. "We can't possibly win this fight." He looked at the
alternate Voyager
on the screen, which was closing in fast. "Helm, close to one
thousand meters, then make a break for our rift at full impulse."

"Aye,
sir," Strickler said.

As the
distance shrank between the two vessels, the phaser array on the
duplicate Voyager
lit up.

The
bridge rocked. Harry saw Strickler hunched over his console,
concentrating. He remembered the things Tom said. "In that
universe, the physics are the exact opposite of ours," as well as
"The logs showed that the opposite of this Lazarus being was
adversarial." Which
probably means the crew of that
Voyager have
polar opposite thought patterns to ours, specifically that Kim's to
mine.
He stood up and put his hand on the helm chair. "Ensign Strickler,
make sure that when we evade the other Voyager,
we break beneath it."

"Understood,
sir."

Harry
looked down at the readout. 2,500 meters. I
hope this works,
he thought.

The
duplicate ships raced toward each other. At the same moment, the
Voyagers
dodged above and below each other to avoid collision.

Strickler
punched it, and Voyager left the buffer zone. "Hard about! Close
the rift in case they decide to follow us!"

At that
moment, the intercom sounded. "Paris
to Kim. The doctor's back in operation. No pun intended."

"Pun
accepted, Tom. We're closing the rift. We should be on our way out
of the nebula in a minute or so." Harry replied, smiling.

*
* *

"So
you encountered a second Voyager?"
Janeway asked, seated on a biobed, undergoing a final examination by
the Doctor. "That must have been thrilling upon first discovery."

Harry
grinned. "Not half as thrilling as being able to outmaneuver our
security officer."

"I
was under duress at the time." Tuvok added stoically.

"Talk
about being under duress," Tom said, "I had to endure B'Elanna
telling nothing but the truth for two days! She must have commented
on my 'cocky attitude' about 20 times!"

Janeway
chuckled. "Well, the theory of Seska's involvement doesn't hold
any water. She didn't have the security clearance to access the
specifications we have, which are not complete enough to build a
working device."

Chakotay
nodded. "I wonder why the chronitons were on a neural frequency,"
he said. "Could the inhabitants of the planet have been trying to
penetrate the technology to turn invisible just by thinking about
it?"

"I'm
a doctor, not a philosopher," the Doctor stated. "All I know is
that I'm glad Kes is still alive." He turned to her, and she smiled
brilliantly. "She has taught me a great deal. Plus, I would be
hard-pressed to find a replacement."

"You
wound me, Doc." Tom said, placing a hand over his heart.

The
Doctor looked at him, an innocuous look on his face. "For a doctor,
that is a double insult, Mr. Paris."

Everybody
laughed. Except Tuvok, of course.

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